First of the Orbot redesigns in full color. This is also my first attempt at using any kind of reflective glare coloration for the metal, so bear with me. Learned a lot from doing this piece, and it'll probably change how I clean up the line art for the subsequent machines.

I tried to maintain Tor's original color scheme as best I could, with some minor adjustments here and there. I am a little concerned with how they will all look as Mighty Orbots, with the varying colors and all, so there may have to be some adjustment once I get their combined form drawn and colored. The creative process at work, I guess.

lol I confess, it's nothing specific. "Great" or "Grand", etc. It's mostly a homage to traditional super robot 'sequels', like how Mazinger Z is followed by Great Mazinger, and Getter Robo is followed by Getter Robo G.

The letter G is the mightiest letter in super robot lexicon, so there's that too.

I saw maybe one full episode of Mighty Orbots when I was four years old, and I couldn't figure out what it was called until maybe two years ago, and I've fallen in love with the show. HOORAY FOR RIDICULOUS CAMERA ANGLE-CHANGES!

I know, right? The director had some really interesting ideas, that's for sure. If you don't have the sound running, it's very much an 80s era anime, with the color palettes, crazy-detailed shading and rainbow color effects.

Mighty Orbots was a cartoon from 1984, an attempt to build on the tide of the Transformers by localizing another Japanese franchise for toy sales. In this case, it was a color-swapped Godmars that was the primary 'toy', though the rest of the show was absolutely nothing like Godmars. In fact, very few actual toys of Mighty Orbots exists, because the show was cancelled after one season thanks to a lawsuit by Tonka, due to their accusations that it was a ripoff of their show, the Gobots (itself a ripoff of the Transformers).

Though short, the series was noted for its ridiculous animation budget and for the fact that almost all of it was animated in Japan (Japanese director, animator, character designer, etc) in collaboration with MGM/US. Graphically it still holds up, though the plot lines and voice acting can be a little painful at times. Hasn't had a DVD release yet, so the episodes are hard to find online. The OP is on Youtube though, and it's very entertaining. In spirit, this was probably the closest the US came to producing its own Super Robot series, until recently with Symbionic Titan and Megas XLR.

I decided to kind of refresh the designs for more a more modern look. The 'G' just denotes a follow-on series (like Getter Robo G followed Getter Robo, and Great Mazinger followed Mazinger Z).

The Transformers have maintained a strong franchise presence since then too, unlike the Orbots who basically fell off the face of the Earth. Galaxy Rangers was the same way, excellent visuals, very striking style and theme, but poof. Gone into cartoon obscurity.

And now I know the most unfortunate alternate mode possible, next to Toiletron. I imagine though he gets lots of people kills; striking when the dumb humans are passed out, like some bizarre, robotic, couch-version of Audrey II. And Decepticouch is just too hilarious.